TotalCIO » CIO leadershipA SearchCIO.com blog2015-03-30T11:32:34Zhttp://itknowledgeexchange.techtarget.com/total-cio/feed/atom/Fran Saleshttp://searchcio.techtarget.comhttp://itknowledgeexchange.techtarget.com/total-cio/?p=40002014-06-06T20:48:05Z2014-06-06T20:28:52ZHearing the personal stories of this year’s batch of MIT Sloan’s CIO Leadership Award finalists, whom SearchCIO had the good fortune to feature in our conference video series, had me in awe. What sparked their interest in IT leadership? Associate editor Emily McLaughlin explores these standout CIOs’ career trajectories in this week’s Searchlight.

It was striking how each CIO’s journey was so distinct; indeed, one of the few things they had in common was that each story did not begin with the revelation of “I want to be an IT leader when I grow up!” Perhaps because it doesn’t sound as glamorous as “doctor” or “firefighter,” but probably because it isn’t part of a 9-year-old’s vocabulary. And that is the point. The role of the CIO was young and uncharted when these IT execs started out.

So it stands to reason that the path to CIO was long and winding for these folks — in a good way. They acquired myriad skills, both hard and soft, in the process. F. Thaddeus Arroyo, AT&T’s CIO (not to mention an MIT CIO Leadership Award winner) always took the road less traveled — lateral moves in addition to promotions, and in both IT and business, no less — with an eye toward his professional growth. Dell CIO Andi Karaboutis followed her mathematical bent: She started out studying industrial engineering but became a computer science convert after taking a course in FORTRAN. Kristin Darby, on the other hand, grew up with IT (discovering a knack for software development while working for her family’s home automation business) but — in a rebellious streak — left it for accounting and healthcare. She eventually found IT again, this time merging it with her desire to improve lives.

But perhaps the more important aspect of these leaders’ stories is the attribute they share with hot shots from all professions — passion. Leadership requires it. Each of these IT leaders discovered what they were passionate about and followed their gut — which eventually molded them into the well-rounded trailblazers they are today.

Who knew business and technology could be such an adventure? Parents – and schools – take note!

In other important tech news this week: Apple also strives to inspire fun with a new programming language Swift; a report shows why young workers are moths to the startup flame; Japanese corporation Softbank creates the first emotionally smart robot; and more.

]]>0Fran Saleshttp://searchcio.techtarget.comhttp://itknowledgeexchange.techtarget.com/total-cio/?p=39522014-10-20T17:28:45Z2014-05-23T20:07:56ZDigital technology is rapidly evolving — how will enterprises ever catch up? And who should lead the charge? Those were the top-of-mind questions for every IT executive who attended the 11th MIT Sloan CIO Symposium, this week’s Searchlight headliner.

Luckily, as was evident from the variety of digital advice-filled sessions to choose from, there are many points of entry in the quest for digital transformation. The first step: Be fearless. Just take panelist Tanya Cordrey’s word for it: The chief digital officer at Guardian News and Media led The Guardian‘s major global domain change and expanded the media property’s global audience to 84 million unique visitors, among other successes. The key, she said, is to play the role of “digital facilitator” and encourage the rest of the company to be a “courageous” news organization.

Her fellow panelists — which included MIT CIO Leadership award-winner Thaddeus Arroyo, CIO of AT&T; Robert Tas, CMO of Pegasystems; and George Westerman, research scientist at MIT’s Center for Digital Business — were in accord: Go digital (to keep up with an increasingly connected customer base) or go home.

Another factor for digitally evolving enterprises — particularly those with legacy systems — to consider: smart, interconnected devices. At ZDNet, HP’s Oliver Marks wrote this week about “the end of social,” or the idea that social networking silos will become extinct as organizations keep up with newer systems of engagement and become more digitally focused on the consumer. Today’s customers prize the ease of use and speed of their digital experience (points brought up at the aforementioned MIT session, by the way), and this spells integration problems for companies with older systems. “This [integration] is the goal of overarching digital enterprise transformation efforts which seek to create coherence of collaboration and interactions across companies,” Marks writes, urging organizations to leave old ways of “social business” thinking and focus on becoming more flexible and agile to be able to keep up.

In other tech news: Yes, another breach (sigh), this time of eBay’s database; Martha Stewart provides drone use-case tips from personal experience; a double-amputee calf gets fitted with high-tech prosthetics; and more.

]]>0Fran Saleshttp://searchcio.techtarget.comhttp://itknowledgeexchange.techtarget.com/total-cio/?p=39392014-06-27T20:34:43Z2014-05-23T17:31:21ZDigital innovations have disrupted how we live; a tech-savvy populace now equates a great user experience with exceptional digital experience. So it’s no surprise that companies are adding digital chiefs willy-nilly. In addition to the CIO role, we’re seeing chief marketing officers (CMO) and chief digital officers (CDO). Question is, which of these C-level execs should rise to the occasion and take charge of a company’s digital transformation?

At the 11th annual MIT Sloan CIO Symposium, the resounding response to that question was…no one. Well, not one person, at least. Turns out, “going digital is a team sport” and departments need to work outside of silos, said the conference’s 2014 CIO Leadership Award winner Thaddeus Arroyo, CIO of AT&T Services. And yes, Arroyo was the lone CIO on the panel of a session titled, “CIO, CMO, CDO Perspectives on Digital Transformation.” He added that a digital transformation has to be an “aspirational experience,” meaning that every department should consider digital transformation its job, not just the job of the company’s digital properties. For example? “Every [IT] budget is a digital budget,” Arroyo said. (No one’s going to put IT in a corner.)

Fellow panelist Tanya Cordrey, of Guardian News and Media, agreed. For the storied CDO, going digital was a necessity, of course. One only has to look at the string of now-defunct print publications that didn’t get on the digital bandwagon. At The Guardian, every aspect of the media property has been overturned, from how journalists create content (smartphone reporting from a warzone was her example) to how the paper’s readers access their content to how quickly they must put out the content itself.

Cordrey described her CDO role at The Guardian as a “digital facilitator.” Her entire organization is now digital, but she said it wasn’t about the technology. “Technology is just an enabler,” she explained.

Ruthless ambition, on the other hand, was not an enabler of this massive change, according to Cordrey. One of the ways she was able to ensure the success of her organization’s transformation, she said, was by hiring people who played nice, especially across departments. “The people you hire have to be great at working with people,” she said.

Dr. George Westerman, research scientist at MIT’s Center for Digital Business and the academic representative at the panel, concurred, citing that companies that lead in digital transformation not only operate, manage and lead differently, but also see a 25% improvement in performance. “If your business is a caterpillar, then digital should turn you into a butterfly,” he quipped.

Hard-nosed digital: ‘If you can’t measure it, don’t do it.’

If neither the CIO nor CDO nor CMO is the person in charge of transforming an enterprise digitally, then what are their responsibilities in a company’s digital strategy, and what should be the angle of attack?

For Arroyo as CIO, he emphasized the need to partner across functions: “We need to be willing to help other departments,” he said. On top of that, CIOs should be able to prove and effectively communicate the efficiency of pursuing digital initiatives. Westerman cheered on that go-team attitude. “Great CIOs are about helping business leaders spend their budgets well,” not just the technology budget, he said.

The remaining panelist and CMO perspective of the bunch, Robert Tas of Pegasystems, was of the same mind. “Marketing is a catalyst, but our IT brethren are crucial to digital success,” he said.

Tas also urged the audience to tackle the skills gap created by the rapid evolution of digital tech. The challenge of becoming an organization that’s “digital by design,” he said, is the difficulty, for instance, of “finding someone with 10 years or more of social or mobile user experience.” Speaking to that point, Arroyo said of AT&T: “Ninety percent of all our IT professionals will have to evolve to meet new roles by 2020″ if the company is to survive the digital transformation.

A question from the audience about metrics showed how serious these organizations are about going digital. What exactly are we measuring when pursuing digital?

Arroyo said that it’s important to measure every interaction, not just digital ones. AT&T measures these interactions across every channel so they’re able to cross-analyze digital interactions against non-digital ones in order to accurately gauge customer satisfaction.

For The Guardian, customer engagement, namely the number of daily active readers, serves as an important top-line digital metric. This is because “our product, the news, is ever-shifting,” she explained; return visits, and not the “vanity metric” of unique page visits, are now what matter. And engagement entails measuring the usability and speed of the digital experience as well. Her bottom line: “If you can’t measure it, don’t do it.”

At the end of the day, it came back to the recurring motif of customer service — with a big dash of courage in the mix.

Said Pegasystems’ CMO: “Rally around the customer!”

From CDO Cordrey: “Courage is infectious. … Be bold!”

And from CIO Arroyo: “Silence your self-limiting beliefs and give your organization a chance to excel!”